'MERICA

Nothing says "America!" quite like a Ford F-150 and Jeep Wrangler rolling across a bridge over the Mississippi river with a six-foot flag pole hanging off the back flying a five-foot long American flag... in slow motion.

After seeing me use a FanPole to fly a U.S. flag from my Jeep's hitch receiver, a co-worker of mine, Eric, offered to buy it right off the back of my Jeep, flag and all. I almost took him up on the offer, but I love my FanPole and Old Glory flapping in the wind in my rear view mirror so I suggested he pick up his own and we could fly them together!

A few days later, a shiny new FanPole and 3-foot by 5-foot American flag were draped across the back of the chairs in his office and he was asking me to help him put it all together. After helping him assemble the six-foot hitch-mounted flag pole and attaching the flag, he suggested I use the DJI Mavic Air I'd been obsessing over since I got it (it's a sickness) to get some footage of his truck and my Jeep driving across the a bridge over the Mississippi river with our flags stretched out behind us. It was a great suggestion. So that's exactly what we did.

A day before Eric was set to leave the company and the state to move closer to his girlfriend and parents, we shined our vehicles up, locked in our flags, and headed out toward the Mississippi. Richie came along to drive my Jeep leaving me to operate the drone and hopefully capture some epic shots.

Once we arrived at the bridge, the gas light on my Jeep came on and the high winds made it incredible difficult to fly the drone safely, much less get complicated camera movements. The birds around the bridge also weren't a fan of my drone's presence and kept trying to dive bomb it. One even got close enough to actually hit the drone and fell from the sky after shaking the drone and the camera just as Eric's truck and my Jeep were going over the bridge ruining the shot.

We did as many passes as we could before my Jeep ran out of gas, then headed back into town not knowing for sure if we got the shots, but when I finally sat down to take a look at the footage later that night, I was very please with what we were able to capture and decided to edit together this little video for Eric to remember my by and vice versa.

Eric and I posing for a drone selfie on his last day.

I figured this would be the perfect going away present for a Bama boy who drives a black and chrome jacked up Ford F-150... now sometimes with a big 'ole American flag proudly waving in the wind behind him. And it's the perfect way to remember our friendship, because when I think Eric Hedgepath, I think 'MERICA!